#URGENT 1/2 to all colleagues in area of 2day's shot down Ukr planes: road between
— Fergal Keane (@fergalkeane47) July 23, 2014
#URGENT 2/2 Petrovskye and Saur-Mohyla not passable.
— Fergal Keane (@fergalkeane47) July 23, 2014
Here are some more details from RFE/RL's news desk on the downing of two Ukrainian military jets today:
Ukraine's military says Russian-backed rebels have shot down two Ukrainian military jets in the east of the country.
Military spokesman Oleksiy Dmytrashkivsky said the fate of the pilots is unknown.
The Sukhoi jets were reportedly brought down near the town of Snizhne today.
The separatists had claimed earlier that they shot down one Su-25 jet near Snizhne.
They said a search was under way for the pilot who ejected. They said a second Su-25 was hit and damaged but flew away.
The shooting down of the fighter jets comes after the downing of a Malaysian passenger plane in eastern Ukraine on July 17.
U.S. intelligence officials say Russian-backed separatists shot down the Malaysian plane "by mistake," killing 298 people.
(Reuters, AFP, UNIAN)
AP says the shootdowns both occurred near Savur Mohila with "up to two crew members each," according to Defense Ministry spokesman Oleksiy Dmitrashkovsky. Mount Savur Mohila lies about 10 kilometers from both Snizhne and Torez.
Interfax quotes separatists as saying the Ukrainian military jets were struck "near the town of Snizhne" and that "the pilot of one attack aircraft ejected near Snizhne...[and] the search for him is under way." The other aircraft, the separatists reportedly say, was "damaged and gone towards the north."
A Ukrainian military spokesman, we remind you, has said two Su-25 jets were shot down.
I'd been holding back on sharing these tweets for confirmation, but will run them now, given the Reuters report on two Ukrainian fighter military jets being shot down.
Many sources are reporting at least one fresh shootdown of a Ukrainian fighter military jet -- while Reuters, for instance, says "pro-Russian rebels shoot down two Ukrainian fighter jets," quoting a Ukrainian military spokesman.